The Internet was set ablaze on Wednesday when the good people at The Pet Collective introduced us to the Corgicam, a 24/7 live feed of four corgi puppies (and their mother) doing puppy stuff in real time. We posted about it here, because, well, of course we would post about it here. The following morning we received an email from someone at The Pet Collective thanking us for passing the CorgiCam along, and telling us to let them know if we had any questions.
Oh, we had questions.
Long story short, yesterday I was put in touch with Tom Hoffman, The Pet Collective’s director of distribution and marketing, and he graciously answered a few of my increasingly stupid questions via email. Did I ask if I could name one of the dogs? And was my proposed name a pun related to a deceased eccentric rapper? Read on to find out. (Spoiler Alert: Yup.)
DG: How did the idea for the CorgiCam come about, and who specifically do I mail a bottle of scotch to for coming up it?
TH: The idea of a live stream of animals was an early Pet Collective concept in a looong list of amazing ideas that was just a matter of time, priority, and technological availability to implement. When running the idea by our YouTube managers a few months back, the idea that weekly live puppies (like a Puppy Wednesday) was excitedly encouraged. But with the announcement and release of extended streaming to YouTube partners very recently, we thought we could go bigger, and we moved quickly. Why not set it up 24/7? I mean, who wants LESS of live corgis? Getting what we want, when we want it, and it always being available … isn’t that what the internets are all about? Scotch can be sent to the whole team here.
DG: It seems to have really taken off in the short period of time since its inception. Were you at all surprised by this, or did you know were sitting on a pot of stubby-legged, adorable gold from the beginning?
TH: No surprise at all. Corgis are little loveable fluffballs of internet magic…literally. This was apparent to us from the very outset of The Pet Collective when on our very first shoot in April 2012, a corgi named Yogi set off an explosion during a shoot of our series, Pet Sense [Ed. note – As seen in a previous edition of Corgi Friday]. No one including the dog was harmed … which was itself magical. But since no one was harmed and we caught it on tape, we decided to release the footage on YouTube, which immediately went viral. So it was officially a corgi that virally launched the channel into the momentum it has today. Thus, this was just more evidence that corgis are wizards of internet magic. Launching an initial PuppyCam could ONLY have been a CorgiCam. Success was implicit from the get-go.
DG: How much of your day is spent watching the CorgiCam and do you feel bad about ruining what’s left of the American economy by distracting our work force with puppies when they should be doubling down to compete with China?
TH: The CorgiCam is always running here in the Pet Collective office. I have it on my office TV screen streaming through an internet set top box as I speak. When one of the little ones so much as twitches, I have to make sure I force myself to get back to work. In 24 hours, three colleagues of ours from other non-TPC endeavors in the company have called me and explained that they can’t shut it off. I sometimes fear we’re harming American workforce productivity … but fears are silly since corgis are magical, and thus no fear is necessary around any corgi-ness whatsoever.
DG: What is your favorite moment so far from the hours and hours of live streaming video?
TH: This is the best…keep in mind that they are too young and chubby to walk properly yet at two weeks old, so they sort of shuffle themselves around like drunken sea turtles. Here was the scenario: Puppy #1 shuffles toward puppy #2, who is sleeping, presenting a barrier for #1 to pass. So #1 needs to choose an option to pass by — 1, go to the right; 2, go to the left, or 3, climb over #2. This is a corgi, so, of course, #1 evaluates quickly and chooses none of these options, proceeding to nuzzle itself completely UNDER #2 … successfully passing by. Adorable.
DG: What are the puppies’ names? Follow-up: Can I name one of them? Second follow-up: Can the name be Ol’ Dirty Barkster?
TH: Mama corgi is beautiful and thus her name is Brinkley … as in Christie Brinkley (circa National Lampoon’s Vacation, I would say). The pups, however, have already been promised to some lucky people, so their names have yet to be determined until their forever home families name them.
BUT, there’s no reason we Internet people can’t crowdsource a killer set of recommended names for consideration.
Ol’ Dirty Barkster should absolutely be in the running, and I would recommend polling online to see if it’s a winner in the eyes of the people. In the meantime, the moment the pups are big enough, we’ll see if we can give them different color collars so it’s easier for the audience to distinguish them in their typical piles of adorableness. FYI, two of them are boys, two of them are girls.
DG: Would you consider dressing one of the puppies up as a police officer and dressing the others as robbers and letting them chase each other around for a couple hours?
TH: Adobe After Effects is a powerful program that can harness the visual potential of corgi magic in the most hands-off, yet cinematically stunning ways. That said … as they get older, they will be socialized with people more and more – so keep watching, and things will get more exciting.
DG: Thank you for answering my stupid questions. Feel free to take this opportunity to plug The Pet Collective and tell us all about what y’all do.
TH: In the macro scheme of things, your questions are important.
The Pet Collective is devoted to giving a voice to animals because pets are smarter than us, and their Internet dominance is evidence. Animals have established themselves as the lorem ipsum of internet culture…we’re just here to translate into readable text. If we break 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, I will do everything in my power to build a corgi statue and let all of our favorite bloggers and corgi lovers sign their name on it – we’ll call you to help boost the Kickstarter. I reserve space for my own name on an adorable white-socked left paw.
Here’s where you can find us:
youtube.com/thepetcollective
facebook.com/thepetcollective
twitter @PetCollectiveTV
